By DAVID EPPS
Pastor

So, video poker is now illegal in Georgia. In fact, under the current laws, it is a felony to even possess a video poker machine. Bad news for an industry that purports to have raked in a billion dollars a year in the Peach State.

On May 29, video poker was dealt a losing hand by the Georgia Supreme Court. The justices unanimously upheld Georgia's ban on casino-type video poker, keno and match up games, overturning a lower court ruling that kept the games going after the law was set to take effect in January.

Authorities have begun enforcing the ban. The machines themselves estimated at 15,000 to 20,000 statewide must have been removed the state by midnight June 30 or risk being seized. Owners will not be compensated for the machines, which average $3,000. In one locality, 4,000 machines were reported to have been seized over the July 4th weekend. While, in another county, 60-70 machines were seized.

Gov. Roy Barnes, who labeled the games a gambling "cancer" and pushed the Legislature to ban them last year, applauded the ruling of the court. "This decision will allow us to put an end to video poker before it brings any more harm to our citizens," Barnes said.

Attorney Mark Spix, who represents video poker machine operators, said the industry is considering asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case or filing a lawsuit seeking to overturn the ban in federal court. "It's a dangerous law and a dangerous precedent," Spix said. "Anytime the state can render something that was legal yesterday to be illegal today, the state can take anything it wants."

Alan Begner, another attorney for the industry, said he would file a complaint in Fulton County Superior Court for people whose right to privacy was violated when the Legislature included a prohibition against having the games in homes for entertainment. Many owners and operators of the games said the law would cripple them financially. Dan Hankinson Jr. said his family's business in Riverdale would survive because it offers more than video gambling but would suffer an immediate 20 percent drop in revenue. "There's nowhere to sell this stuff," said Hankinson, past president of the Georgia Amusement & Music Operators Association. "I can sell certain parts, but the rest is just trash."

While opinions are divided about video poker in Georgia, no one seems to be against gambling itselfcertainly not the governor nor most members of the Legislature. While owners of video poker machines are being arrested and their machines are being seized, commercials for the Georgia Lottery continue to air every few moments on most television stations. As long as the state is controlling the games and as long as the hefty profits are coming into the state coffers, politicians are just fine with promoting, endorsing, and encouraging gambling. It's when others are making the bucks that their collective morality is outraged.

Is gambling, wherever it may be found, a "cancer" as Governor Barnes declares? Or is it that state-sponsoring gambling, i.e., the lottery, is exempt from this diagnosis? Or is it that only gambling that doesn't funnel mega-bucks into the state coffers is a "cancer?" Does being state-sponsored make the "cancer" healthy? Is non state-sponsored gambling "evil" and state-sponsored gambling "good?" If this is the case, then a whole host of social ills and "cancers" can be cleaned up and made a good thing.

Perhaps there should be state-sponsored crack houses with the money going to drug rehab centers. Or, perhaps state sponsored prostitution with the millions of dollars generated being put toward women's health issues. If being state sponsored makes a practice right and good then why not?

"[Video poker] was siphoning over a billion dollars this year alone from those who were least able to defend themselves from the gambling addiction," said Danny Craig, district attorney in Augusta and an outspoken opponent of the industry. But Mr. Craig is silent on the effect that the legal lottery may have on thousands of Georgia citizens. Does the legalization of a certain form of gambling mean that these same people will no longer be addicted to gambling? Or will they just spend their money on the lottery?

"The state of Georgia should never have gotten into the business of sponsoring legalized gambling through a state lottery," said columnist Cynthia Tucker in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "It suckers the poor and the gullible into throwing away their precious resources in a rigged game. Though parents of college-age students are delighted by lottery-funded scholarships, the Georgia Lottery was never a good idea." But it is legal and, according to the boys under the Gold Dome, that must make it right.

[The Reverend Canon David Epps is rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church in the Coweta/Fayette County area of south metro Atlanta. He may be contacted at FatherDavidEpps@aol.com or at www.ctkcec.org. Several sources were consulted in the composition of this article including the Atlanta Business Chronicle, The Citizen news, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.]

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